Harvard, Princeton report increases in yield rate

Though Yale has not yet released its yield rate for the Class of 2017, other Ivy League universities have reported increases over their figures from last year.

Despite the cancelation of Visitas — the university’s traditional three-day welcome event for freshmen — Harvard reported that a record 82 percent of students accepted their offers of admission, making the highest yield rate since Harvard’s Class of 1973. Harvard decided to cancel Visitas this year due to the security lockdown of the greater Boston area in April, which followed the Boston Marathon bombing. Harvard’s yield rate last year was roughly 81 percent.

This year, Princeton reported a 68.7 percent yield rate, a small increase over its 2012 yield rate of 66.7 percent. UPenn and Brown also reported increases in their yield this year, with figures rising to 64.3 percent and 60 percent, respectively. Other Ivies have not yet reported their yields.

According to experts, yield rates at each school tend to follow individual patterns specific to those institutions. Several college counselors cautioned against measuring schools’ yield rates against one another, especially because of the difference in early acceptance programs at universities, and because of the number of students at each school who postpone their matriculation by taking gap years.

Although The Daily Princetonian reported a 65.2 percent yield rate for Yale, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said Yale has not yet released its yield rate this year. Yale’s yield rate last year was 68.4 percent, shooting up from a five-year decline.